Blogs from Roatán, Bay Islands, Honduras, Central America Caribbean - page 23

Well folks, we arrived alive. We’re hot, sweaty, Jon is chaffed and Hannah is laughing at him while voraciously scratching at her polka dotted body. In the cab from the the airport our faithful driver, Robert, brought us up to speed on some local history. Apparently there are racial tensions between the native Roatanese population (who are decedents of a British slave population, dumped here after they revolted on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean -- thank you Hannah and our guidebook) and the Spanish “Ladinos” from the mainland. The Garifuna (descendants of the revolters) now have trouble getting decent jobs because they don’t have the money to get the educations that these jobs demand. To fill these spots, there has been a massive influx (according to Robert) of Spanish speaking mainlanders much ... read more

Today we went to Anthony's Key Resort to see the Dolphin show. AKR is a nice diving resort just a few miles down the road, in Sandy Bay. The cabins are on stilts on a little cay off from the mainland and they have water taxis to shuttle people back and forth. It's quite a complex, with an institute of marine sciences, as well as a medical clinic with a decompression chamber. They also have a little museum on coral reefs and marine life. There is a daily dolphin show, which is free to watch. We've been doing some nice diving--Aaron dove El Aguila, a wreck that was sunk off of Anthony's Key and now provides a home for various sea creatures, and Amy has been doing some afternoon dives after work. ... read more

Amy finally took the camera to work so now we have some pictures of the public hospital in Roatan. The hospital is in Coxen Hole, a town about 15 mins by taxi from West End. The pediatrics clinc is run by Global Healing. There is a Honduran doctor who works alongside the global healing volunteers. We get to the hospital around 7:30 am and see the newborns that were born in the last 24 hours. There is no newborn nursery or NICU, the babies co-sleep with their mothers. After examining the babies, we round in the pediatrics ward with Dr. Jackie, one of the pediatricians. The pediatrics ward has about 8 beds and 2 isolettes. The patients usually have respiratory problems or skin infections, but we had a patient with HIV and one with malnutrition/failure ... read more

Well, I was supposed to be going to Guatemala for Semana Santa with Jill, Alisa, and Meg. Semana Santa is the week leading up to Easter. We were given this time off school. Almost the whole city stops for at least 4 days. Every seemed closed. Anyways, plans changed. Alisa decided to stay in Comayagua and spend time with Donray, and Meg decided to go up to La Ceiba to spend time with her boyfriend Mac (who is teaching at a school near La Ceiba). I felt horrible for Jill but because I would have the opportunity to still see Guatemala when I travel up to Belize at the end of the year, I decided that I would rather get in some dives. I hadn't been diving since Christmas and missed it. Plus I would ... read more

So it finally came!! Semana Santa break. I swear I think I may have been looking forward to this more than Chirstmas break....naw. I guess it was just that this was the longest straight we've gone with out even having a long weekend thrown in somewhere... spoiled I know. I guess with the recent decisions I have made I am just that much more ready to go. But onto to Roatan. So in a bizarre twist of plans, when 2 of the girls from the Guatemala bound group backed out Sarah decided to tag along with me. I was looking forward to going it alone, getting away from the whole compound and anything school related, but Sarah and I get along fine and are the only 2 who dive anyway. It worked out too, because ... read more